By Faith We Understand That Life Was Created By God

The writer to the Hebrews begins chapter 11 by defining faith. He then continues to encourage his readers by giving examples of how believers exercise their faith. Interestingly he begins with us, his readers.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. - Hebrews 11:3 ESV

What is his point? Is there another way of understanding how the universe came to exist? Obviously. In our day modern science does not want to allow for this understanding at all. Lets look at what he says in more depth.

Use your mind, he says, and keep using your mind. Think about this over and over again and keep on thinking about it some more. It is what Jesus' disciples did not do after he had fed about 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few small fish and after they took up the leftovers they still had seven large baskets full. Then he and his disciples went across the sea to the other side. Now, for some reason they forgot to take any of those leftovers along. So when they got to the other side they tried to figure out what to do about food.

And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" 

They said to him, "Twelve." 

"And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" 

And they said to him, "Seven." 

And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?" - Mar 8:17-21 ESV

In so many ways, we are quite naturally like those disciples when it comes to "the universe." We don't use our minds. We act as if it were not created by the word of God. By the way, the word translated here as "universe" is not what the original Greek has. The Greek word, aeon,  is much more comprehensive. It refers to life itself, all life. Originally it was related to the Greek word for breathing. Then it came to refer to the length of time that such life exists, an era or age. Then by substituting what is contained (life) for the container (universe), you end up calling aeon the universe.

And that's the whole point. How do you explain not just the physical universe, but the fact that there is life in this and other possible universes? We see this stuff we call atoms, molecules, protons, electrons, whatever. Our sciences have all sorts of names for it. But who can explain where life came from without faith?

Oh, there are many attempts. Some try to say chance. Life just somehow happened. It is the natural outcome of the evolution of cosmic matter —whatever such scientific babble means. Some confine the discussion to planet earth and say that some asteroid from somewhere else crashed into this planet and brought primitive life that evolved. Of course that only puts off the origin question. Where did that life come from? Marcelo Gleiser, in an NPR related blog, writes,

Molecular biologists like Gerald Joyce, from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and Nobel laureate Jack Szostak from Harvard University, among many others, are making spectacular advances toward understanding life. They can manipulate RNA and DNA and coax them into enacting the game of life, that is, respond and adapt to environmental pressure as the theory of evolution dictates; they can strip away cellular structures and genes from living cells to search for the minimum living system; Günter von Kiedrowski in Germany was able to construct auto-catalytic chemical sets that show self-replicating abilities. 

These experiments are not yet creating life in the laboratory. But they are certainly steps in the right direction. Even if we will not be able to explain exactly how life emerged on Earth, science still offers the only pathway toward understanding.

"The only pathway toward understanding"? Faith, based upon God's revealed Word, understands that life "was (and is) created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." And what are those things that are invisible? What is at the bottom of all life is intelligent design. Life works. Life reproduces. Beneath the tiny world of the atom is information. That is what makes it all work together and beneath the information is intelligence, a mind, THE MIND!

I join the LORD Jesus to ask, "Do you not yet understand?"

The Formidable Unity Among Us Christians

In his introduction to the modern translation of an ancient book by St. Athanasius (On The Incarnation), C.S. Lewis wrote, 

"We are all rightly distressed, and ashamed also, at the divisions of Christendom. But those who have always lived within the Christian fold may be too easily dispirited by them. They are bad, but such people do not know what it looks like from without. Seem from there, what is left intact despite all the divisions, still appears (as it truly is) an immensely formidable unity."

The creed named after Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, reflects that "immensely formidable unity" among us Christians. Almost all Christians readily embrace the Athanasian Creed as a carefully crafted summary of what we believe about the tri-unity or trinity of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Outside the pages of the New Testament itself, Athanasius is probably the man to whom we chiefly owe the preservation of that Christian faith. The creed named after Athanasius exposes the false teachings of a popular party that taught Arianism and defends the full divinity of Jesus Christ. The Arian view is seen today most especially in the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, who teach that Jesus is not unique from the rest of mankind. Against the Arians the Athanasian Creed emphasizes that Jesus is of one substance with the Father (the Greek word is homo-ousios), leaving the Arians no room to teach that Jesus is merely a god or a high ranking angel then or today.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit = God

Est = is. Non est = is not.

In today's and in upcoming blog postings I intend to emphasize especially that unity we Christians have, most especially around the person and work of Jesus, Son of Mary and Son of God. To do that I invite you to step back to the 4th century to listen to what Athanasius himself taught about Jesus who is "Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood" (Athanasian Creed: 31).

This teaching is of immense importance for several reasons. Let's begin with how we of the 21st century explain the origin of the universe and our own planet. We Christians teach that the universe and our world were carefully designed and crafted by a Mind from outside and beyond our universe. Scientists who espouse Darwinian evolution and natural selection reject such statements. Neo-darwinians stress that it is a grave mistake to mix religion with science, especially since religion is a matter of feelings and blind faith in some supposed revelation whereas modern science depends upon careful observation and rational conclusions that grow out of the scientific method. Here is a chart from Concept Crucible outlining that method:

In response to these modern Darwinians a growing number of scientists stress that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause and design. They point out that intelligent design (ID) is indeed a proper scientific hypothesis or theory.

Intelligent design begins with the observation that intelligent agents produce complex and specified information (CSI). Design theorists hypothesize that if a natural object was designed, it will contain high levels of CSI. Scientists then perform experimental tests upon natural objects to determine if they contain complex and specified information. One easily testable form of CSI is irreducible complexity, which can be discovered by experimentally reverse-engineering biological structures to see if they require all of their parts to function. When ID researchers find irreducible complexity in biology, they conclude that such structures were designed.

ID scientists do not want to be identified as creationists. Their science is science and not religion. They operate with rational thinking and the scientific method. That is all fine and good, I suppose. It keeps open the dialogue. However, we who have been reborn by the power and working of God's Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6) have no choice but to teach openly that our God is not only some god above and outside this creation. We are not Deists. No indeed. The very same God who created the universe by His Word out of nothing is Jesus! Jesus IS that Word of God who became flesh and blood in the Child born of Mary (John 1:1-16). That is what our Christmas celebration is all about.

And He became incarnate flesh and blood for a specific reason, a reason tied to creation and to the universe itself. We emphasize that if our first parents had obeyed the Creator, the life of a paradise without sorrow, suffering, pain and death would still be ours today—and forever. But they threw away their heritage and birthright. They disobeyed His clear command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so they died (Genesis 2:16-17; Gen 3:1-19). We who are the children of Adam and Eve share in that death, as does creation itself. In Adam we all died, writes the Apostle (1 Cor 15:21-22).

Life here on our planet was created with purpose and meaning. It was never to be meaningless as it so often seems, a mere matter of the undirected and mindless chance taught by the religion known as Darwinism. Everything was created with purpose and order. Note how the order of creation progresses as recorded in Genesis 1-2. At the end of each day the Creator pronounces what He either created or made as good!

But what do we see all around us? Chaos, confusion, suffering and the cessation of life. This is exactly what the Creator said would be the result. Adam, Eve and their children would all die, die  because of their disobedience. That disobedience is called sin. Death is directly related to sin. Death entered creation because of our disconnect with our Creator. And since we who bear the very image of our Creator were to rule over this world (Gen. 1:26-30) there is a disconnect between us and this created world as well. We either do not have dominion over it or we find it warring against us. As the Creator said to Adam, the earth is cursed (Gen. 3:17). Life has now become a struggle. We murder and wage war with one another. We have twisted and perverted our sexual natures. Family life breaks down everywhere. Our bodies are infected by other hostile lifeforms of the creation. We suffer from disasters brought on by the uncontrolled forces of wind and wave. Hurricanes, electrical storms and earthquakes ravish our homes and destroy our children. Everything is in confusion.

It was never to be this way. God did not want it this way, but what could He do about it? That's a topic for tomorrow.

Design or Chance—You Decide

Yesterday I began a series of blogs to alert  you to the ongoing debate between scientists and philosophers who believe in the process of evolution known as natural selection and those who believe in intelligent design. Before going further, it is vital that we distinguish between micro-evolution and macro-evolution. Basically micro means small and macro means large. Scientists suggest that change beyond the species level is a result of a series of small changes within the species. The idea is that birds with feathers are related to a type of dinosaurs who changed gradually over millennia.


In his book Evolution, Mark Ridley defines the terms thus:

Macroevolution means evolution on the grand scale, and it is mainly studied in the fossil record. It is contrasted with microevolution, the study of evolution over short time periods, such as that of a human lifetime or less. Microevolution therefore refers to changes in gene frequency within a population .... Macroevolutionary events are much more likely to take millions of years. Macroevolution refers to things like the trends in horse evolution ... or the origin of major groups, or mass extinctions, or the Cambrian explosion .... Speciation is the traditional dividing line between micro- and macroevolution. (2004: 227)

It is not my intent to explain in detail why Christians have difficulty with macroevolution, especially when talking about the origin of humans. I simply point to two books, one that says we Christians have no problem with evolution and another that says Christianity and evolution are incompatible, because they represent two conflicting world views.

We've all seen charts in textbooks and museums like the following. The operating assumption is that the line of descent between ape and man is a proven scientific fact.

This is what Francisco J. Ayala, an ordained Roman Catholic priest and professor of biology, states in his book Am I A Monkey - Six Big Questions About Evolution,

The "missing link" is no longer missing. The fossil from Java was the first one, but hundreds of fossil remains belonging to hundreds of individual hominids have been discovered in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Africa, Asia, and Europe and continue to be discovered at an accelerated rate. (Kindle location 92)

...a large amount of genetic material—about 3 percent, or some 90 million DNA letters—has been inserted or deleted since humans and chimps initiated their separate evolutionary ways, 6 to 7 million years ago. (Kindle location 152)

For Ayala there is no conflict between evolution and the Christian faith. He quotes Pope John Paul II in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Oct. 22, 1996: "New scientific knowledge has led us to realize that the theory of evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis" (Kindle location 655-62). Evolutionary science explains how things happened. Religion leads us to praise the Creator who has put the process of evolution into place. The two operate in distinct fields of knowledge. They do not conflict with one another. Read his book for a more complete statement of his beliefs.

Now back to William Demski and Jonathan Witt in Intelligent Design Uncensored. I referred to them in my blog just prior to this one. They demonstrate that macroevolution simply cannot and does not happen. For humans to evolve from monkeys, genes must have mutated to build significant amounts of new functional information. As Ayala says, "some 90 million DNA letters have been inserted or deleted since humans and chimps" went their separate evolutionary ways—or did they? Demski and Witt point out that this kind of thing does not happen on the cellular level. They point to recent studies of the common bacterium E. coli, found in human stomachs. These experiments indicate that it is "easier for evolution to break things than make things" (Kindle location 707). Mutations generally do not work. The new information needed to make a new species (monkeys become man) cannot come from mutated genes. Mutations bring changes, but add no new needed information.

Their point: if the creation of new DNA information does not happen at the micro level of the cell, it certainly cannot happen on the macro level so that one species becomes an entirely new species, even allowing for millions of years to pass. For the development of new DNA information on the cellular level there had to be an Intelligent Designer at work. Therefore monkeys did not turn into humans, regardless of how many millions of years you give them and their DNA randomly to change. That 3 percent difference says it all.

Think about the implications. The science is not there. Macroevolution faces some huge difficulties. The old assumptions do not work, in spite of what Professor Ayala, Pope John Paul II and many others say. It's time to take another look at Intelligent Design. It's time to realize that our Creator is intimately at work in everything that is. The Apostle John puts it this way as he speaks about Christ,

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17). 

 

I Still Believe In Original Sin

Recently I was listening to one of the candidates for president in this country. He was proclaiming himself the one who can bring renewal, hope and a new beginning. He will unite us and bring us a new destiny. As I said to some friends, his speech gave me stomach cramps. It was all because I don't believe any president can or ever will be able to offer what this one promises.

Why the pessimism? It is because I believe in original sin. Now there's a concept that is rejected by religious people and the scientific community alike, particularly those who espouse the theory of evolution. You cannot believe in macro evolution and in original sin at the same time.

Permit me to explain.

I'll start with original sin.

The New England Primer written before 1680 by Edward Taylor summarized the teaching with the ditty "In Adam's fall we sinned all." What that teaching suggests is that we all bear a common lineage, regardless of race, gender or nationality. In our human nature we completely lack any good in spiritual, divine things. We are all descended from Adam and Eve, a real couple who disobeyed God and were banished from the Garden of Eden. And so we do not seek God, nor do we love Him. It is rather our nature to create and worship other gods. We are, in fact, enemies of God and of all that He would teach us to believe in. It is another way of saying that God's image has been corrupted. In heart, soul, mind, heart and will we are opposed to God and to the doing of His will. This is our nature.

But wait, wait, you're saying to me. How can that be? Think of all the fine, noble and wonderful things men do. They're certainly not all done by Christians. They're done even by atheists. Yes, even people who believe in no god at all give money to the poor, support hospitals and numerous causes that promote the well-being of mankind.

And what about the wondrous progress of science? As you yourself admit, not all who devote their lives to that pursuit are followers and believers in Jesus Christ. Yet, they have brought us hundreds of advancements in medical science, agriculture, transportation, physics, etc. The astounding list goes on and on. In fact, old man, you wouldn't even be around any longer if you'd come down with pneumonia, appendicitis and some other ailments you've recovered from if you'd lived a hundred or so years ago. The discoveries of modern medicine have been used to keep you alive to write this article.

You're right, of course. In natural and external things that are subject to reason we humans still possesses a measure of power, and ability. That's the amazing and wondrous thing about us. The image of God is still reflected within us, though greatly weakened. According to God's blessing, we still have the power to "be fruitful and increase in number." We still have the command to "fill the earth and subdue it." We still retain His mandate to "rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:28).

We have seen some astounding discoveries in the past century. They continue, thanks to human science and the use of reason. But even this reason is corrupt! We do not love the Lord God with our minds. I cannot imagine what it would be like if we did and if our mental facilities were free from the corruption of sin.



But, but, but . . . What about all the astounding discoveries of paleontology and archeology? What about the famous Lucy fossil? What about homo erectus, Neanderthal skulls and all that other stuff that is taught in grade schools and high schools across our country? What about Mary, Louis and Richard Leakey? What about all that you old, out-of-touch, seventeenth-century-thinking man? What about evolution?

Tell you what. Are you willing to do a little online reading? Read what Ray Bohlin writes in his article "Human Fossils - 'Just So' Stories of Apes and Humans." He suggests that "Effects of the ice age, constant cloud cover (preventing Vitamin D formation leading to rickets), largely vegetarian and uncooked diet, and expression of local genetic variation could readily account for the many different, yet anatomically related human forms" that have been labeled as evolutionary steps toward the progressive march of evolution.

There are, of course, many other articles available. Consider the Creation Research Article "Beyond Scientific Creationism," published in December, 2004. The authors conclude,

"As time passes, it becomes evident to more people that issues of origins have more to do with worldviews than with science. The focus of the Intelligent Design movement on evolution has been especially telling, and the outmoded ideal of the white-coated, objective investigator with an answer for every question has slipped into the past."

Do your own research. Read the writings of Philip Johnson, William Demski, Michael Denton, Michael Behe and a growing host of others involved in the Intelligent Design movement and the debate about the origins of this world and all things living on it. And if you believe in the Risen Christ, the Second Adam, as I do, you too may end up being more than a little pessimistic about the powers of any politician, philosopher, orator or scientist to usher in the great, new perfect world. That world will only come when our Lord returns in all His power to restore what He created to its original glory.